Portable telephone maraca which produces musical tones in synchronization of the swings and vibration of the user

ABSTRACT

A portable telephone is designed to realize portable telephone functions and game device functions, particularly music games, which are embodied by a vibration device such as a vibration sensor and a vibration motor. When the user swings and vibrates the portable telephone like a maraca in synchronization with the rhythm of a prescribed musical tune, the vibration device produces vibration pulses, which are compared with rhythm pulses. Then, a score is marked on user&#39;s operation to swing the portable telephone on the basis of time differences detected between the vibration pulses and rhythm pulses and is displayed on the screen of a display.

This application is the National Phase of International ApplicationPCT/JP01/00477 filed Jan. 25, 2001 which designated the U.S. and thatInternational Application was not published under PCT Article 21(2) inEnglish.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to portable telephones that produce musical tonessuch as melody sound and rhythm sound to respond to incoming calls andplay games.

BACKGROUND ART

Recently, portable telephones have been widely spread and used amonggeneral people, so particularly young persons frequently owned portabletelephones for personal communications. Recently, the engineers havedeveloped a variety of techniques for portable telephones, some of whichprovided specific functions as game devices in addition to portabletelephone functions. For this reason, there is a strong demand thatportable telephones be further developed and improved in function asgame devices.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a portable telephonethat provides brand-new functions as game devices, which realizeparticularly simulated performance of musical instruments.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

A portable telephone of this invention is basically designed to realizegame device functions, particularly music games, in addition to portabletelephone functions. According to portable telephone functions, theportable telephone establishes a line connection with an externaltelephone terminal by radio communication in connection with theexisting telephone line network constituted by base stations and mobileexchanges, for example. Herein, the portable telephone is capable ofgenerating musical tones and rhythm sounds of a prescribed musical tunein response to reception of incoming calls. The game device functionsare embodied specifically by means of a vibration device such as avibration sensor and a vibration motor. That is, when the user swingsand vibrates the portable telephone in synchronization with rhythmsounds, the vibration device produces vibration pulses, which arecompared with rhythm pulses. Then, a score is marked with respect touser's operation to swing and vibrate the portable telephone on thebasis of time differences detected between vibration pulses and rhythmpulses and is displayed on the screen of a display. That is, the user iscapable of playing a music game by swinging and vibrating the portabletelephone like a maraca in synchronization with rhythm.

Incidentally, when the vibration motor is installed in the portabletelephone, it is possible to generate vibration in response to receptionof incoming calls, and it is possible to detect vibration applied to theportable telephone in response to counter-electromotive force producedby the vibration motor. Herein, the counter-electromotive force can bealso used to charge a battery of the portable telephone.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electronic configuration of aportable telephone in accordance with a first embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an electronic configuration of aportable telephone in accordance with a second embodiment of the presentinvention.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

This invention will be described in further detail by way of exampleswith reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an electronic configuration of a portable telephone K inaccordance with a first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1,reference numeral 1 designates a central processing unit (CPU) thatperforms overall controls on several sections and circuits of theportable telephone K, and reference numeral 2 designates a read-onlymemory (ROM) that stores programs executed by the CPU 1 as well asincoming call melody data used for generation of incoming call melodysound to notify a user of the portable telephone K of reception ofincoming calls from calling parties. Reference numeral 3 designates arandom-access memory (RAM) that is used as a temporary storage of data.The RAM 3 temporarily stores telephone numbers for use in dialprocessing and music data used for playing games. Incidentally, the RAM3 has a battery-backup. Reference numeral 4 designates an operator inputsection that contains numeric keys for use in entry of telephone numbersand function keys for inputting commands and instructions. Referencenumeral 5 designates a display that is constituted by a liquid crystaldisplay and a display control circuit.

Reference numeral 6 designates a communicator connected with an antenna7. The communicator 6 transmits transmission data on carrier waves bythe antenna 7, and it also demodulates incoming call signals received bythe antenna 7 to produce incoming call data, which are forwarded to aspeech processor 8. In addition, a microphone 9 picks up and convertsthe speech of the user of the portable telephone K to speech signals,which are forwarded to the speech processor 8. The speech processor 8converts speech signals to digital data, which are then compressed toform transmission data to be supplied to the communicator 6. Further,the speech of a person who uses a telephone terminal (not shown) tocommunicate with the portable telephone K is received and converted tospeech data by the communicator 6. Therefore, the speech processor 8converts the speech data output from the communicator 6 to analog speechsignals, which are forwarded to a speaker 10.

Reference numeral 13 designates a musical tone memory to which musicdata given from the CPU 1 is to be written. That is, the musical tonememory 13 stores incoming call melody data used for generation ofincoming call melody sound and music data used for playing games,details of which will be described later. A controller 14 writes themusic data given from the CPU 1 to the musical tone memory 13. Herein,the music data contain melody data, timing data and rhythm sound data.Thus, the controller 14 reads the melody data from the musical tonememory 13 to sequentially output them to a sound source circuit 15 inaccordance with the timing data. In addition, the controller 14generates pulse signals for designating timings of generating rhythmsounds and outputs them to a rhythm sound source 16 in accordance withthe rhythm sound data.

The sound source circuit 15 is a circuitry that forms digital musicaltone signals based on the FM system or PCM system. That is, the soundsource circuit 15 forms digital melody sound signals based on the melodydata output from the controller 14, so that the digital melody soundsignals are forwarded to a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 18. Thedigital-to-analog converter 18 converts the digital melody sound signalsoutput from the sound source circuit 15 to analog melody sound signals,which are forwarded to a mixer 20. The rhythm sound source 16 generatesdigital rhythm sound signals based on the pulse signals output from thecontroller 14, so that the digital rhythm sound signals are forwarded toa digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 19. The digital-to-analog converter19 converts the digital rhythm sound signals output from the rhythmsound source 16 to analog rhythm sound signals, which are forwarded tothe mixer 20. The mixer 20 mixes together the analog melody soundsignals and analog rhythm sound signals that are respectively outputfrom the digital-to-analog converters 18 and 19. Thus, the mixer 20produces mixed signals, which are forwarded to a speaker 21.

Reference numeral 23 designates a vibration sensor that senses swingingvibration applied to the portable telephone K by the user. When anoutput of the vibration sensor 23 exceeds a prescribed threshold level,a vibration detection circuit 24 generates a pulse, which is forwardedto a rhythm difference detection circuit 25. That is, as long as theoutput of the vibration sensor 23 exceeds the prescribed thresholdlevel, the vibration detection circuit 24 outputs pulse signals, whichare forwarded to the rhythm difference detection circuit 25. The userstarts a game by pressing a certain key on the operator input section 4so that the CPU 1 issues a game start signal, which activates the rhythmdifference detection circuit 25 to operate. That is, after the CPU 1issues the game start signal, the rhythm difference detection circuit 25measures time differences between pulses output from the controller 14,which designate timings of generating rhythm sounds, and pulses outputfrom the vibration detection circuit 24 which detects the swingingvibration of the portable telephone K. Then, the measured timedifferences are forwarded to the CPU 1.

Next, descriptions will be given with respect to detailed operations ofthe portable telephone K that provides game device functions in additionto portable telephone functions. First, a description will be given withrespect to the portable telephone functions of the portable telephone K.

At reception of an incoming call from a telephone terminal of a callingparty, the communicator 6 receives incoming call signals by the antenna7, wherein the incoming call signals are demodulated to produce incomingcall data, which are forwarded to the CPU 1. Upon receipt of theincoming call data, the CPU 1 accesses the RAM 3 to store a telephonenumber of the calling party. Then, the CPU 1 reads from the ROM 2 theincoming call melody data, which are forwarded to the controller 14. Thecontroller 14 writes the incoming call melody data to the musical tonememory 13, from which the incoming call melody data are sequentiallyread out and supplied to the sound source circuit 15. Thus, the soundsource circuit 15 generates incoming call melody signals, which areconverted to analog signals by the digital-to-analog converter 18. Theanalog signals are supplied to the speaker 21 by way of the mixer 20, sothat the speaker 21 produces incoming call melody sound.

When hearing the incoming call melody sound, the user of the portabletelephone K presses a call reception button (not shown) on the operatorinput section 4, so that the CPU 1 issues an incoming call sound stopinstruction to the controller 14. In addition, the CPU 1 issues a lineconnection instruction to the speech processor 8 and communicator 6.Thus, a line connection is established between the portable telephone Kand the telephone terminal of the calling party. This enablestransmission of speech signals of the microphone 9 to the calling party.In addition, the speech processor 8 outputs speech signals based on thespeech of the calling party to the speaker 10. Thus, the speaker 10produces the speech of the calling party.

In a call transmission mode, the user of the portable telephone Koperates the numeric keys on the operator input section 4 to enter atelephone number of a called party, then, the user presses a calltransmission button (not shown) on the operator input section 4. By theentry of the telephone number using the numeric keys, the CPU 1 writesthe telephone number to the RAM 3. When the user presses the calltransmission button, the CPU 1 sends the telephone number temporarilystored in the RAM 3 to the communicator 6. Then, the communicator 6transmits signals representing the telephone number on carrier waves bythe antenna 7. Hence, call signals corresponding the telephone numberare sent to the telephone terminal of the called party. When a lineconnection is established with the telephone terminal of the calledparty, the CPU 1 issues a line connection instruction to thecommunicator 6 and the speech processor 8. This secures conversationwith the called party by the microphone 9 and speaker 10.

The aforementioned portable telephone functions are generally employedby the conventional portable telephones.

Next, a description will be given with respect to the game devicefunctions of the portable telephone K. In this case, the user calls amusic download center (not shown) over phone to request distribution (ordownload) of musical tunes. The music download center corresponds tocomputer facilities that are provided for exclusive use in distributionof music information and data. When receiving requests from users orsubscribers of telephones via telephone lines, the music download centerdistributes music data of requested musical tunes on charges. That is,the music download center distributes to the users or subscribers themusic data containing melody sound data and rhythm sound data. When theuser of the portable telephone K requests a certain musical tune fordistribution, the music download center downloads corresponding musicdata to the portable telephone K, in which the music data are receivedby the communicator 6 and are forwarded to the CPU 1. The CPU 1 writesthe downloaded music data to the RAM 3. Herein, the user of the portabletelephone K is capable of requesting distribution of multiple musicaltunes from the music download center, so that the multiple musical tunesare written to the RAM 3.

When the portable telephone K receives downloaded music data of multiplemusical tunes as requested, the user is capable of selecting one of themusical tunes by operating a prescribed key (or keys) on the operatorinput section 4. The CPU 1 detects key operations made by the user toread out music data of the selected musical tune from the RAM 3. Theread music data are forwarded to the controller 14, by which they arewritten to the musical tone memory 13. Then, the user operates aprescribed key to start a game on the operator input section 4. The CPU1 detects such a key operation to issue a game start instruction to thecontroller 14 and the rhythm difference detection circuit 25. Thus, thecontroller 14 sequentially reads from the musical tone memory 13 themusic data that contain melody data, timing data and rhythm sound data.The controller 14 outputs the melody data to the sound source circuit 15in accordance with the timing data, while it also outputs pulse signalsdesignating timings of generating rhythm sounds to the rhythm soundsource 16 in accordance with the rhythm sound data. Thus, the speaker 21produces melody sound and rhythm sound of the selected musical tune.

In synchronization with the musical tune, the user holds and swings theportable telephone K like a maraca, which is a kind of a percussioninstrument. When the user swings the portable telephone K, swingingvibration is applied to the portable telephone K and is sensed by thevibration sensor 23 that output pulses. That is, the vibration detectioncircuit 24 outputs pulse signals corresponding to outputs of thevibration sensor 23 to the rhythm difference detection circuit 25.Hence, the rhythm difference detection circuit 25 inputs pulses outputfrom the vibration detection circuit 24 for detecting the swingingvibration and pulses output from the controller 14 for designatingtimings of generating rhythm sounds. As long as the user continuouslyswings the portable telephone K intensely over the prescribed thresholdlevel, the rhythm difference detection circuit 25 successively detectstime differences between the aforementioned pulses. As a result, therhythm difference detection circuit 25 produces time difference data inconnection with the output pulses of the controller 14 respectively, sothat the time difference data are successively forwarded to the CPU 1.The CPU 1 sequentially writes the time difference data to the RAM 3.

When the portable telephone K completes playback of the musical tunebased on the music data written in the musical tone memory 13, thecontroller 14 issues an interrupt signal representing an end of playbackto the CPU 1. Upon receipt of the interrupt signal, the CPU 1 sums upthe time difference data written to the RAM 3. Thus, a total of the timedifference data is displayed on the screen of the display 5 as a user'sscore in playing a music game.

In the aforementioned embodiment, the portable telephone K is designedto generate rhythm pulses based on rhythm data contained in music data.It is possible to modify the present embodiment such that rhythm pulsesbe extracted from the melody sound data. In addition, it is possible tomodify the present embodiment such that generation of rhythm sounds bestopped during a game play.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be describedwith reference to FIG. 2, which shows an electronic configuration of aportable telephone K1. In FIG. 2, parts identical to those shown in FIG.1 are designated by the same reference numerals, hence, the descriptionthereof will be omitted as necessary.

The portable telephone K1 shown in FIG. 2 differs from the portabletelephone K1 shown in FIG. 1 by the provision of a vibration motor 26and a diode 27, which substitute for the aforementioned vibration sensor23 and vibration detection circuit 24. Incidentally, the portabletelephone K1 shown in FIG. 2 is also equipped with a battery 28 and apower source circuit 29, which are also used by the portable telephone Kof FIG. 1 wherein those elements are omitted from the illustration. Thevibration motor 26 is a dc motor in which a vibrating member is fixed toa rotation shaft in an unbalanced manner. When the vibration motor 26operates to rotate the rotation shaft, the vibrating member is subjectedto unbalanced motion to cause vibration. The diode 27 is provided toprevent reverse current from flowing therethrough.

In the portable telephone K1, the user is capable of operating some keyon the operator input section 4 to select vibration caused by thevibration motor 26 instead of generation of incoming call melody sound.In that case, at reception of an incoming call, the CPU 1 issues a driveinstruction to the vibration motor 26. Thus, the portable telephone K1activates the vibration motor 26 to cause vibration without generatingincoming call melody sound in response to reception of an incoming call.

Next, a description will be given with respect to game device functionsof the portable telephone K1. In this case, the user cuts off powersupply to the vibration motor 26. Similar to the portable telephone Kshown in FIG. 1, the portable telephone K1 performs similar processingso that the speaker 21 produces musical tones of a specific musical tunebeing selected. When the user swings and vibrates the portable telephoneK1 in synchronization with the musical tones of the specific musicaltune, the rotation shaft of the vibration motor 26 is forced to rotatedue to vibration of the portable telephone K1. Due to the forcedrotation of the rotation shaft, ‘pulse-like’ counter-electromotive forceis caused to occur on a coil of the vibration motor 26. Thecounter-electromotive force is supplied to the rhythm differencedetection circuit 25. Then, the rhythm difference detection circuit 25detects time differences between the pulses of counter-electromotiveforce and the rhythm pulses output from the controller 14. The rhythmdifference detection circuit 25 produces time difference data, which areforwarded to the CPU 1. That is, the portable telephone K1 ischaracterized by using the vibration motor 26 instead of the vibrationsensor 23 shown in FIG. 1.

The aforementioned counter-electromotive force is supplied to thebattery 28 via the diode 27, so that the battery 28 will be charged.This means that the portable telephone K1 uses the vibration motor 26 asa vibration source as well as an electricity generating source thatcharges the battery 28 while the user enjoys playing a music game.

As described heretofore, this invention has a variety of effects andtechnical features, which are described below.

(1) The portable telephone of this invention is designed to detect timedifferences between rhythm pulses corresponding to a rhythm of a musicaltune and pulses that are produced by the user who swings and vibratesthe portable telephone in synchronization with musical tones of themusical tune. In addition, the portable telephone introduces a brand-newfunction to automatically mark a score in a music game on the basis ofthe time differences between the rhythm pulses and the pulses producedin response to user's motion. Thus, it is expected that the portabletelephones providing the aforementioned function may attract interestsof people to arouse new demands on the market of portable telephones andgame devices.

(2) Detecting vibration on the portable telephone is not only realizedby a vibration sensor but also realized by a vibration motor. Thevibration motor is used to cause vibration in response to reception ofincoming calls from calling parties. In addition, the vibration motorcan be also used as a sensor because it produces counter-electromotiveforce in response to vibration applied thereto. Further, thecounter-electromotive force can be used to charge a battery. Thus,portable telephones that provide vibration motors to realize game devicefunctions of this invention can be easily manufactured without providingnew capital investment in the existing phone manufacturing facilities.This may bring reduction in manufacturing costs for producing newportable telephones having game device functions.

Lastly, this invention is not necessarily limited to the foregoingembodiments, hence, it is possible to provide any types of modificationswithin the scope of the invention without departing from essentialsubject matters.

What is claimed is:
 1. A portable telephone having a communicator forreceiving and transmitting signals with base stations by radiocommunication to secure conversation with an external telephoneterminal, comprising: a vibration motor for applying vibration to theportable telephone at reception of an incoming call, wherein thevibration motor generates counter-electromotive force when vibrated; amusical tone generator for generating musical tones of a prescribedmusical tune; a rhythm sound signal generator for generating rhythmsound signals in synchronization with the musical tones of theprescribed musical tune; a rhythm difference detector for detectingtiming differences between outputs of the vibration motor correspondingto the counter-electromotive force and the rhythm sound signals; ascorer for marking a score based on the timing differences detected bythe rhythm difference detector; and a display for displaying the scoreon a screen thereof.
 2. A portable telephone according to claim 1,wherein the vibration device corresponds to a vibration motor thatgenerates pulses of counter-electromotive force when vibrated.
 3. Aportable telephone according to claim 1, wherein a battery isautomatically charged by the counter-electromotive force produced by thevibration motor.
 4. A portable communication terminal device forreceiving and transmitting signals with base stations by radiocommunication to secure data communication with an externalcommunication terminal, comprising: a vibration motor for in a datareception mode, applying vibration to the portable communicationterminal device, and for in a non-data reception mode, generatingcounter-electromotive force when vibration is applied thereto from anexterior; a musical tone generator for generating musical tone signalsof a prescribed musical tune; a rhythm sound signal generator forgenerating prescribed rhythm sound signals in response to the musicaltone signals of the prescribed musical tune; a rhythm differencedetector for detecting timing differences between output signals of thevibration motor corresponding to the counter-electromotive force and therhythm sound signals from the rhythm sound signal generator; a scorerfor marking a score based on the timing differences detected by therhythm difference detector; and a display for displaying a markingresult of the scorer on a screen.
 5. A portable communication terminaldevice according to claim 4 further comprising a speaker for performingelectroacoustic conversion on the musical tone signals from the musicaltone generator, thus reproducing musical tones.